The Walking Dead season 8 episode 7 'Time for After' spoiler-filled review

*Major spoilers for The Walking Dead season 8 episode 7*

The latest episode of The Walking Dead does a commendable job at getting all the pawns into place ahead of next week’s midseason finale while also leaving it quite unclear as to what to what these playing pieces will actually be doing in the last episode of 2017. Title ‘Time for After’ - an allusion to Scavengers leader Jadis' (Pollyanna MacIntosh) catchphrase before she throws her prisoner into the pit with spiked walker Winslow - the episode, for the most part, pushes Eugene (Josh McDermitt) front and centre concerned with his shifting allegiance from Rick to Negan.

Only, there’s not much shifting going on. If his storyline has seemed rather predictable from the moment he was captured by Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) last season (weak character defects to villain to later overcome said villain in huge redemptive act), this episode proves it’s anything but: Eugene is Negan and it seems like he has been without realising it from the moment we met him back in season 4. As he tells an ailing Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), currently suffering from organ infections after slathering himself in walker guts a few weeks back, surviving is the only thing Eugene knows how to do.

Dwight (Austin Amelio) learns this frustratedly after preaching to a sentimentality Eugene no longer has by mentioning the names of his presumed friends - Rick, Daryl, Rosita. Friends? No, Eugene views them as mere “travelling companions" and isn't fussed about the shitstorm Negan's going to rain down on them once they're holed up in the Sanctuary no longer.

Negan - clearly concerned Eugene's allegiance is teetering back to his nemesis - deals out the manipulation. “That spongy organ between your eyes and your spectacular mullet is strong,” Negan says. “I want you to know that I know that.” Bang - Eugene’s back with Negan - and second-in-command, no less (everyone loved a hair compliment). The malice that Dwight once possessed has been transposed to Eugene and it's for that reason that Eugene could be the most dangerous character featured on The Walking Dead. The fact remains - quite how the writers have turned a once stale presence into one of the series’ most compelling creations is an astounding feat.

Eugene’s stubbornness isn’t the only catalyst that’s thrown a heap of characters into danger ahead of the midseason finale - Daryl (Norman Reedus), Tara (Alana Masterson) and Morgan (Lennie James) decide to enact a plan to unleash the surrounding walkers into the heart of the Sanctuary by driving a van directly into the compound. Gunfire rings out, walkers descend and the scene is set much to the astonishment of Rick (Andrew Lincoln_ who - after almost an entire episode bizarrely stripped to his boxer shorts - (seemingly) manages to get Jadis on side, hopefully meaning that there's a reason for the Scavengers' introduction into this world instead of them remaining a storyline prime for the scrapheap.

This episode of The Walking Dead won’t be scrawled down in the history books as one of the most memorable, but it was certainly an improvement on last week’s sprawling bore. That the show is still dishing out a fair bit of unpredictability eight seasons remains credible - whether next week’s midseason finale will leave us feeling optimistic at the thought of eight more episodes in 2018, however, remains to be seen.

The Walking Dead season eight airs every Sunday in the US on AMC with the UK premiere arriving the following evening on FOX. It will also be available on NOWTV

We spoke with Enid star Katelyn Nacon who teased the “horrific” episodes to come and offered final word on the long-standing theory that her character is still a member of the faded faction known as The Wolves.​

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